1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing metal composite powder by wire explosion in a liquid, and to a multi carbon layer coated metal composite powder.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Nanopowders, which are ultrafine powders, can exhibit electromagnetic, mechanical, and catalytic properties which cannot be observed in existing materials and are attributed to refinement (to about 100 nm or less) that leads to an increase in a surface area. Therefore, it is expected that such powders shall create a new demand over a whole industry as next-generation functional materials that are applicable to ultra-high strength parts, magnetic parts, thermal sensors, filters, batteries, catalysts, and the like.
Methods of producing nanopowders are well known in various points of view, but, among them, a technique of producing a metal nanopowder by wire explosion using pulse power has been actively studied. The method of producing a metal nanopowder by wire explosion bears a great significance in an aspect of industrial applications, and, economically, it is more beneficial over other methods. A method of wire explosion is to produce a metal nanopowder by applying pulse power to a metal wire that is fed to an inside of a chamber, exploding the wire to induce vaporization thereof, and then cooling/condensing it in an ambient gas or a liquid.
As a technique of producing a metal composite powder by wire explosion, Korean Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 10-2005-0000667 (published on Jan. 6, 2005) discloses a technique of conducting wire explosion by simultaneously feeding a plurality of wires which are made of different types of metals from one another. However, the types of metals that can be produced into a metal wire with a shape that is appropriate for wire explosion are limited. Furthermore, it is not easy to produce an alloy metal into a wire, which is a shape appropriate for wire explosion, and the types of alloy metals that can be easily made into a shape of a wire are highly limited.